Television time is cutting into youth fishing

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John Arway, executive director of the Fish and Boat Commission, said some new surveys have shown that watching television is the main competing activity for fishing time.

"The question is, how do we get people away from the TV and to go fishing?" he asked.

When it comes to youngsters, that means using technology, he said. There's already a phone app that lets people search boat access areas; soon, the state will have one to show people the location of all its wild trout streams, he added.

"These are the kinds of things we need to reach the next generation, the generation coming up," Arway said.

That may not be what traditionalists want to hear, he admitted. He told the story of a friend who was frustrated with his daughter, who took her phone with her on every hunting trip. When she finally bagged her first deer, though, she used it to send photos and texts to all of her friends and even to post her kill online, he said.

Finally, the friend realized that his daughter — phone in tow — was at least still going into the woods — and that's what matters, Arway said

"We've got to adjust. We can't let it irritate us," Arway said. "We have to adapt to them as much as they have to adapt to us."

"Things just aren't the same as when we grew up," added Carl Richardson, manager of outreach and education for the commission.

Deer review

Pennsylvania is not the only place where hunters argue about deer.

In Wisconsin — where the state's deer herd has exceeded the legally established population goal for more than 20 years, according to official estimates — Gov. Scott Walker has gone to the point of hiring a "deer trustee."

James Kroll of Texas — known as "Dr. Deer" for his work as a whitetail consultant and professor of forest wildlife and director of the Institute for White-tailed Deer Management and Research at Stephen F. Austin State University — is tasked with providing an "independent, objective and scientifically based review of Wisconsin's deer management practices."

The Department of Natural Resources is paying him $125,000 to do the work.

Kroll is to provide a preliminary report no later than March 1 and a final report no later than June 1.

Holy Smoke

Looking for a way to memorialize a loved one who was a hunter or shooter• An Alabama company has come up with a new idea.

Holy Smoke LLC will take your relative's cremated ashes and put them into live ammunition, so that the next time you shoot, the blast carries with it a part of the deceased.

The idea was created of two police officers and can be seen at www.myholysmoke.com . The process uses about one pound of ash to create 250 shotshells in your choice of caliber or gauge.

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